In 2019, a group of student-loan debtors filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Claiming to represent more than 100,000 student-loan borrowers, the plaintiffs accused DOE of issuing “blanket refusal[s]” when students tried to have their student loans forgiven based on claims they had been defrauded by the … Read more
Question: Dear Steve, Under borrower defense to repayment rules, my student loans should evaporate, but collection agencies keep selling the account to each other, and they bother me always. Why do I think borrower defense to repayment applies? The college recruiter and the head of the Financial Aid Department at Greenville College lied to me … Read more
Question: Dear Steve, I recently watched a video of you on youtube discussing the “Borrowers Defense” for student loans. The video was published in 2016 and I just became aware of borrowers defense today 10/19/20. 2 part question Can we still submit Borrower Defense to Repayment applications? If so, what information do we need to … Read more
Personally, I feel for the student loan debtors trapped between the Obama Department of Education and the Trump Department of Education under Betsy DeVos, and by extension, President Trump. He is her boss and in charge. On June 25, 2019, a class-action lawsuit was filed to resolve the claims made by defrauded students for federal … Read more
A number of states have filed an amended complaint against the Department of Education and Elisabeth DeVos over the handling of the Borrower Defense to Repayment Program gutted by the Trump administration. The allegations made by a number of states is that the Trump Department of Education has changed the rules about student loan forgiveness … Read more
The current Betsy DeVos Department of Education is attempting to gut the Borrower Defense to Repayment program that serves to protect students from student loans from fraudulent schools. The Department has gone so far that in 2019 they proposed new rules that would change the way that abusive student loans are forgiven and reduce the … Read more
Before you get all excited, this only applies to students in Massachusetts. The Predatory Student Lending project that is part of the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School released the following press release on this update. Today, a federal judge ordered the Department of Education to cancel the student loans of all 7,200 former … Read more
It seems to get harder and harder to write posts about the Department of Education under Betsy DeVos that can stay apolitical. Recently the members of the House and Senate passed a Joint Resolution of disapproval of the policies of the Trump Department of Education to make it hard to get partial or full forgiveness … Read more
Question: Dear Steve, I have a friend who had his Borrowers Defense To Repayment application denied by the Department of Education for FAILURE TO STATE A LEGAL CLAIM on the multiple allegations stated within the BDTR. My friend is not a lawyer and the school has a history of fines paid for deceptive marketing practices/fraud … Read more
I admit there is nothing in this world that represents true justice or fairness. No matter what side you are on, not everyone is going to be happy with any resolution. But this Borrower Defense to Repayment program has been a total mess. Students who were defrauded by their schools were entitled to have only … Read more
The Department of Education under Betsy DeVos seems to be broken when it comes to overseeing student loan programs. Deep issues are preventing debtors from getting access to programs and forgiveness under the law. The biggest broken programs are Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Borrower Defense to Repayment, Closed School Discharges, and now a new class-action … Read more
The Department of Education has made it tougher for federal student loan debtors to obtain forgiveness of their federal student loans under the Borrower Defense to Repayment program. One of the changes made has been to make it much harder for students to prove they are the subjects of fraud by the school. The State … Read more
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein announced a $493.7 million multi-state settlement with for-profit education company Career Education Corp. (CEC). In a settlement with 49 states, including North Carolina, CEC has agreed to reform its recruiting and enrollment practices and forgo collection debts 179,529 students owe nationally. In North Carolina, 4,738 students will receive approximately … Read more
Question: Dear Steve, Attended ITT Technical and was deceived by their recruiters. I filed a Borrowers Defense to repayment-previously but never heard back from the Department of Education. I now have come up with more supporting documentation. Can I file an “amended” BTR online? Charles Answer: Dear Charles, Well, this falls under the heading of … Read more
The Department of Education Borrower Defense to Repayment has officially gone from being a blessing to a joke and now to essentially lights out. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has made it clear that she feels forgiving federal student loans for students who are victims of school fraud is wasteful. She’s said, “all one had to … Read more